Guest Blog · Reviews

Sultry in Stilettos by Nana Malone – Review/Guest Post

Shy, Fantasy Event Planner, Ricca Munroe has never been lucky in love, so when the latest in a long line of Mr. Oh So Wrongs publicly dumps her, she focuses on her career.  All she has to do to land the job of a lifetime is work side-by-side with the one man who can break her heart.

 

Beckett Mills has never been in love. Personal entanglements are a recipe for disaster—that is until one kiss from Ricca Munroe changes everything.  Beckett needs this job to fulfill a promise he made.  All he has to do is resist the seductive charms of his best friend.

 

Can Ricca come out of her shell to land her dream job and the love of her life? Can Beckett trust himself enough to actually fall in love and still keep the promise he made?

 

Warning: Sexy, sass talking women will make you laugh, cry and want a pair of killer footwear.

 

Guest Blog:

*This is my life before I left the EDJ* 

A typical day starts with my personal assistant nudging me gently to wake around 5:00 in the morning. (Read Dear Hubby slinging an arm across my face as he flops around in bed trying to find the alarm to throw it across the room.)

Following wake up is some meditation time to prep my mind for fluid imaginative thoughts from my muses. (Read, I jump out of bed muttering about why the F%&# I’m awake at such and ungodly hour and plunk myself down in front of my laptop for a 15- 30 minute writing sprint.)

Following this, I take a leisurely bath to help me prepare for my day. (More like I sprint into the shower haphazardly tossing a shower cap onto my hair praying it doesn’t decide to go full afro on me as I haven’t made it to the hair dresser in months.  I scrub down in 5-10 minutes, occasionally hopping out to jot down a though on the notepad I keep on top of the toilet.  Either a new story idea or something I have to do that day.)

I take my time getting ready for my fulfilling and satisfying day job. (Read, I mumble and groan like any teenager worth their salt about how I don’t’ want to go in today and how I wish I could just quit.  All the while wrestling with my flatiron and hot comb trying to tame my hair into some semblance of a style and wonder how their cords have fused together even though I put them away separately.  And let’s not forget to mention that 4 out of 5 days I completely forget to put make up on making me look something like death warmed over.)

Then we spend time as a family preparing for our days. (More like I start cursing because I’m late for work and scrambling around the kitchen getting Bratlette’s breakfast ready and lunch packed and asking hubby which of the leftovers is his for lunch and popping toast in for myself for breakfast all the while, DH gets Bratlette up and on the potty and does her bath. Then once she’s dressed, I need to wrestle her hair into some version of the style I worked so tirelessly on over the weekend because somehow it’s become bent out of shape as she slept.  While I do that and beg her to eat something other than just blueberries, DH walks the dog.)

I leave for work just before 7 AM opting for a leisurely stroll to the office. (Ha, most days I have this lofty idea of walking to work, but in reality, I just hop in the car and drive like a crazy person the five minutes it takes to get to my office, desperate to be there before anyone else so I can have an hour to myself to do another 15 minute sprint and actual work before anybody comes in and can bother me with silly work questions.)

Though out the day, my muses make appearances helping me with my manuscript. (I wish. Ti’s breakneck speed in my office all day and I hardly get a moment to breathe let alone write at lunch.  Most days, I escape to the car to tap out another quick 15 minute sprint.)

At the end of the day I enjoy a leisurely time with the family. (I run and pick up Bratlette, then we nip home to walk the dog a process in which Bratlette likes to help with – she’s two so it takes a minute— then we do dinner and story and start getting ready for bed which almost always involved a “discussion” about why we have to brush out teeth…and a sticker for compliance.)

Once my darling daughter is down, then I spend some quality time with my husband.  (Read, we scarf down dinner and I try to squeeze in another 15 to 30 minute sprint.  Then we actually get to chill and hang out before passing out exhausted into bed – Yes, I’m leaving out the good bits.  Lol.)

That’s my day. Rinse and repeat every day.

Review:

What are my thoughts on Sultry in Stilettos?  One…a perfect friends to lovers story.  Two…their careers were interesting.  Third…chemistry, chemistry, chemistry.  Four…dialogue, dialogue and more dialogue.  Five…laugh out loud funny moments.  Six…HAWT; balcony scene alone is worth the read.  Seven…Beckett.  Yum!  Eight…Ricca.  Nine…the twist at the end I never saw coming.  And ten…all of the above.

Seriously, I will start with the writing.  Perfection in my book.  Dialogue was tight, funny, paced well and face it, getting drunk with your girlfriends and ending up throwing up on a guy is funny and yes, this comes from personal experience.  Funny and realistic scene.  Every scene between Ricca and Beckett was real.  Nothing was forced.  It just flowed from one scene to another.

I know the friends to lovers troupe has been done many times over.  Sometimes with good results and not so good results.  The back story on Ricca and Beckett is real and beautiful.  Unfortunately, it took a couple of near misses for either one of them realized it before it was too late.  Throw in his older brother and it just twisted it even more.  Plus, let’s not forget their own insecurities.

As fantasy coordinators, think wedding coordinators, it was interesting and exotic.  The fantasy that they were working on during the book, I want.  Especially the costumes.  Ms. Malone did a great job with the office politics, bitchy co-workers and oh my…the scene in Ricca’s office.  🙂

I could go on about Ricca and Beckett but I won’t.  You will need to read this realistic tale of a friend to lovers story that had laugh out loud moments, hawt loving, girlfriends that would kill for you (and hide the body) and believable characters that you want to be friends with.  Everyone needs a friend like Jaya and Mischa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author:

Nana’s love of all things romance and adventure started with a tattered romantic suspense she borrowed from her cousin. It was a sultry summer afternoon in Ghana, and Nana was a precocious thirteen. She’s been in love with kick butt heroines ever since. With her overactive imagination, and channeling her inner Buffy, it was only a matter a time before she started creating her own characters.

Waiting for her chance at a job as a ninja assassin, in the meantime Nana works out her drama, passion and sass with fictional characters every bit as sassy and kick butt as she thinks she is. Though, until that ninja job comes through, you’ll find her acting out scenes for hubby, baby and puppy while catching up on her favorite reality television shows in sunny San Diego.

Website / Twitter / Facebook

 

Buy Links

Barnes & Noble / Amazon

5 thoughts on “Sultry in Stilettos by Nana Malone – Review/Guest Post

  1. Loved the guest blog! Glad to know I’m not the only one who still whines like a teenager at having to get up and go to an EDJ….lol…Thanks for the review -this definitely sounds like something I want to read and will be adding it to my book list.

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